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Friday, July 11, 2014

Sepia Saturday: What Price Beauty?

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is very familiar to many women: the beauty parlor. Several years ago when my hairdresser
announced she was giving up hair to pursue a college degree in psychology, I had
only 2 things to say: first,
hairdressers ARE psychologists already, and second, it’s easier to find a new
ob-gyn than a good hairdresser. Am I
right?

The vanity that drives me to keep a regular hair
appointment every 6-7 weeks is surely inherited from my mother. When I was a child, many women made weekly appointments for a shampoo and set. My grandmother did, as did
my mother for a time.

But Momma was a do-it-yourselfer when it came to children’s
hair.

She cut my bangs. ALL of them!

May 1955 on my grandmother's sofa

Rods 1950s

And perms! My hair
was so straight that Momma made me sleep in those torture rods to get the
Tonette Home Permanent to curl. (I’ll
have to ask my hairdresser to explain the psychology behind saving the very
thing that caused me such pain.)

From Google Images
I was never this cute though.

When bleached blond hair was in vogue in the 1960s, I
wasn’t allowed to follow that trend. It
was a moral issue. But in the 70s, Momma
was an early adopter of “frosting,” now better known as “highlighting” and “lowlighting.” When she became fully blond, she decided it
would be good for me to color my hair too so that people would think her color
was natural. (Momma wasn't really delusional -- she was funny.)

Another do-it-yourself project.

DIY Hair 1971

The home kit included a little plastic cap with blue dots
marking where to pull the hair through using a crochet hook. The intended look required punching a hole in
every other dot and hooking a few strands of hair for a light, natural
highlight. I’m pretty sure Momma went
through EVERY dot with more than just a few strands.

I still remember the look of horror on Momma’s face when
she realized she didn’t have the right bottle of something. Toner, maybe?
There were no 24-hour pharmacies and Wal-Marts then, so I had to sleep
in that plastic cap and hope like heck my hair didn’t slide back through the
holes.

Thank-goodness the next day was NOT Sunday, so Momma was
able to buy whatever it was she needed and then finish her experiment on my head.

Blond hair looked pretty good for awhile.

October 1971 Selfie

But the growing out – not so much.

Typing with my eyes closed April 1972

Why we didn’t go to the beauty parlor to fix that mess, I
can only guess. Probably chemical
processes then were too expensive by my family’s standards. However,
later in life, money was no object when it came to my mother’s hair. She instructed her hairdresser to make her
hair “baby chick yellow.” Momma often
quoted Dolly Parton: “It costs a lot of
money to look this cheap.”

Why don’t you just “curl up and dye” with my friends at
Sepia Saturday.

Can you believe that the male hairdresser pictured in my blog this week still uses a version of that dotted cap and crochet hook method for tinting? Fine for him, he has virtually no hair and doesn't have to endure it, but it's so painful, and was one of the reasons I changed hairdressers a year or so ago.

My mother's hairdresser used the cap long after other hairdressers had switched to foil. Maybe he thought the cap guaranteed a better separation of the hair than doing it with a comb. I certainly don't miss the cap!

My mom used to give me Toni home permanents. I think my curls lasted all of a month, maybe. When I was older, I gave myself home permanents. I finally quit doing it after one time when I was right in the middle of giving myself one & was at the point where I needed to rinse all the chemicals out of my hair only to discover our subdivision had run out of water! I pulled some from the back of the toilet, but it wasn't enough. Frantically, I called my husband whose office was just 10 mins. away & he came right home with a big water can (like a milk can) full of water and a ladle. Luckily I got my hair rinsed before it burned. After that, I went to a beauty parlor for a permanent!

My mother used to go to the beauty parlor once a week too. When I was in college, she insisted that I go and have my hair frosted even though I didn't want to. It didn't look bad, but it didn't really fit my personality, and the frosted part felt very dry like straw.

I completely agree with your opening! Also on the growing out stage, all too much! What perfect, and hilarious photos of the bangs-do (I also had a few of those) and of course the growing out color phase! Cute post Wendy.

That's so funny that you had a photo of your mom giving you the frosted treatment. I remember having this done at the beauty parlor. Your mom was brave to try the home version. Or maybe it you that was brave!NancyLadies of the Grove

My sister once convinced me that she could do a great job cutting my hair. I was 6 or 7, she was 12 or 13, and she was babysitting me. No photographs exist and she denies having done the deed but in photos for the next few years my hair was short. I'm sure my bangs looked like yours, but the worst thing was being taken to my grandfather, the barber, the next day to have the cut "repaired." My grandfather cut everyone's hair the same: male and short!

Great fun stories about your hair. Me too, Toni perms at home. And more DIY dye jobs than I care to remember! But the few times I went to a beauty parlor, I was amazed how the stylist wanted to know all about me, and everyone in the next chairs would also just talk between everyone else about their lives. It was way too intrusive on my introverted self!

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net